Flashes of Color
by avtorSola
Summary: Oneshot/Drabble accompaniment to the Seventh Stone Universe, usually involving everyone's favorite short-tempered shinigami captain, the Avengers, the members of the SRD and a few of the Infinity Stones. Submissions of prompts and/or drabble/oneshots welcome! Newest oneshot/drabble - Daily Insanity
1. Pink Panic

**A/N:** Part 2 is still in progress, so nobody panic. In the meantime, enjoy!

* * *

 _(Before the start of Part 2, but after the end of Crash-landed)_

"I'm not allowed to contact _anyone_?"

Thor winced. The glare that Hitsugaya was giving him was spectacular, and now that the shinigami's left eye was lit in six different shades of deadly, he could feel the drops of sweat rolling down his back. He shifted uncomfortably, cursing his father mentally. Oh yes, leave the heir to the throne to explain to an angry shinigami captain with the power of seven Infinity Stones in his blood exactly why he is not allowed to speak to his lieutenant or even his superior. Brilliant plan.

"Unfortunately, no." Thor said weakly, trying to avert the young captain's ire. "My father is worried about your current mental state-"

"Mental state?! I've got six freaking _infants_ living in my head! You really expect me to look sane?!" Toushiro seethed, the star/flower shaped tattoo just over his left eyebrow winking with undecided flashes of color. In the few weeks since he'd woken from his coma, the pre-teenager had practically been obsessed with clamping down on the powers of the six other Stones. And from what Thor understood, it was a similar task to raising six children, all of which were hyper on sugar. Little wonder Hitsugaya's patience was so frayed.

Thor made a calming gesture with his hands, trying to press the young captain further back into his room.

"It's less of a precaution for your own safety than it is for the safety of your people." Thor tried again, feeling somewhat relieved when the fury on the younger boy's face faded, though it did not dissipate completely. "And in any case, my father wishes to be certain that you can fully control the six Stones before you set foot outside of this room."

With a snarl, Toushiro turned and stalked inside the large room in which he'd been living for the past several weeks, his tread thunderous with anger. Thor followed him, hoping to regain some fragment of the young man's calm mood.

"I can take a message to your lieutenant, if you wish." He offered, remembering the conversation he'd had several days prior. "She may be allowed to come and visit you."

Hitsugaya shuddered slightly.

"I don't want to drown in that mess anytime soon, thanks." He sniped uncomfortably, going unusually pale at the thought, much to Thor's confusion. "Just…would you tell me how she's doing on the paperwork?"

Thor nodded, smiling, happy to finally have some good news. Matsumoto had seemed quite cheerful when telling him about that the other day, even going so far as to offer him what seemed to be a happy smile.

"Oh, I spoke to her about that recently." He said cheerfully. "She said that she wished to inform you that another lieutenant has offered to assist her with the paperwork. Someone named Ku…oh, I believe it was something like Kusojuchi?"

For a moment, Hitsugaya blinked, uncomprehending, and then all of the remaining color drained from his face. A vision of a pink-haired little menace marching into his office drifted to the forefront of his mind, armed with crayons and glitter glue and destruction trailing in her wake.

"Nooooo!" he howled, startling Thor so badly that he nearly summoned his hammer. "Not my paperwork!"

Thor seized the frantic young man around the waist as he tried to bolt for the door, throwing the young shinigami bodily over his shoulder when Hitsugaya attempted to escape from his grasp. The young captain shrieked in rage, violently thrashing about so viciously that Thor nearly dropped the pre-teenager onto the hard stone floor. With a lot of effort, Thor managed to wrestle Toushiro to the ground, pinning him down as best as he could. Hitsugaya fought back in earnest, his mismatched glare wide in what seemed to be terror. Several times he almost succeeded in hurling the demigod off.

"Not Kusajishi!" he kept yelling, much to Thor's bemusement. He didn't recognize that name…

The tattoo on the shinigami's forehead and his left eye suddenly glowed bright, blood red, and in a massive explosion of otherworldly energy, the Reality Stone, the Aether, swirled dark and ominous through the room. Thor was thrown backwards, striking the far wall hard. For several terrifying seconds the Aether's liquid power hung weblike in the air around Hitsugaya, who knelt on the floor, empty-eyed and oddly limp.

Then scarlet whipped through the room, peeling away the atoms and leaving dark matter in their place, which created incredible supernovae of white light as the tiny particles destroyed each other. Within moments the furniture had evaporated, and as Thor watched in horror, the whirling crimson inched closer to where he lay slumped against the far wall.

However, just as he was preparing to summon his hammer, Toushiro gasped and crumpled sideways to the now-uneven floor. The Aether's red energy vanished instantly, revealing the deep, blackened scars made by Hitsugaya's new powers on the stone beneath. Thor remained as still as he could, slightly terrified, then slowly approached the shuddering pre-teenager.

"I do not know if this will assuage your panic…" he mumbled vaguely, staring. "But the lieutenant's name was not Kusajishi. It was Kurojuchi, or something similar."

Toushiro slid a twitching gaze onto Thor, still shaking with the effort it had taken to repress the Reality Stone's wild energies. He blinked.

"…oh. Kurotsuchi." He gasped out, relief evident in his tone. Then he sweatdropped painfully, his face twisted by sheepish apology.

"If that's the case…I may have overreacted a little…" he said slowly. Thor just looked at him, his expression somewhat incredulous.

"Perhaps just a mite." He agreed derisively. Then his face changed to one of open curiosity as he helped the snow-topped captain to his feet. "For what reason did you panic so?"

Toushiro went a little bit pink as Kusajishi's havoc-causing face wriggled into his mind, complete with a sugar-rush gleam in her maroon eye. He grimaced.

"You really don't want to know."

* * *

If you want to send in prompts/drabbles, just PM me! :)

~avtorSola


	2. Sneak Peek at Part 2!

**A/N:** Here is the first chapter of Part 2! Enjoy!

* * *

 _"_ _Thoughts/Telepathy"_

 _~"Artificial Communications"~_

 _"_ _Zanpakutou speaking"_

 ** _"_** ** _Japanese"_**

It was quite pretty, he decided finally, watching the faint strands of color interweave in his mind's eye. And it would be mesmerizing had he not understood and known what each fibrous filament represented. It was as if he was seeing Spirit Ribbons again, tracking his peers for the first time since his Academy days. Selecting one at random, he followed it with a telepathic finger, the vast capacity of his brain instantly analyzing and memorizing.

 _"_ _I am…I am…I am…"_

The voice was soft, a broken record, but it made him smile nevertheless. Every day the six others in his head – excluding Hyourinmaru, as he made seven – made a little more progress. Today, it seemed that Yellow was beginning to attempt describing itself. A big step, Toushiro knew, still listening quietly to Yellow's baby thoughts, blooming underneath his touch.

"Toushiro, my father says that lunch is ready, when you wish to eat."

Thor's deep rumble broke into the delicate filigree of his tenuous telepathy, and without warning the connection between his mind and the infant consciousnesses shattered – all save one. The Tesseract's blue power gleamed brightly on his collarbone, set into his skin, and it alone had flourished with the constant contact with his mind. By its glowing blue mark, five other small patches of color stained the smooth porcelain white of his skin beneath, each of which held a place for the other five Infinity Stones. They looped down over his chest like a large necklace like an oddly shaped sort of tattoo. One of two he now possessed.

 _"_ _Hitsugaya-niitan! Nii-tan! Nii-tan!"_ Blue chirped anxiously at the back of his mind, the gentle buzz of the feminine voice still warped by lack of practice. Toushiro winced – Blue was the only one which could actually throw mental shouts at him now, and the sudden cranial noise still hurt him. If he had to guess, then Blue's mental age would be about equivalent to that of a four-year-old. A four-year-old Yachiru. Ergo, _ouch_.

 _"_ _Easy, Blue. It's Thor."_

The Tesseract's budding consciousness fell silent, satisfied, and then the last dregs of Toushiro's new mindscape vanished. Slowly, the room came back into focus. He sat cross-legged on a soft green cushion, his hands curved neatly in his lap, facing a wide window with a view that overlooked Odin's city below. He blinked, his eyes dry from staying open for so long, and without warning realized that he – and the cushion beneath him – were floating about a foot in the air.

"Bloody hell." He muttered, raking his fingers through unruly white hair and concentrating. Slowly, the cushion drifted back to the floor, and he sighed tiredly. "I keep doing that without realizing it…"

Thor's appreciative laugh came from the gilded doorway, and Hitsugaya stood and turned, the soft white and blue tunic he wore flaring out around his narrow hips, his left eye fading from Tesseract-blue to his natural green as the Space Stone withdrew from his mind. He rolled his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck and stretching like a cat to reawaken his stiff muscles.

"How long was I meditating for that time?" he asked, his voice a low groan. He felt rather weak, as if he'd been asleep for several weeks. Thor's fond grin never faded, though his brow did knit together in puzzlement.

"Four and a half days." He replied simply. A frown flitted across the blond thundergod's face. "The length of your trances worries me."

Hitsugaya scuffed the sole of his boot against the floor, the flexible grey leather supple against his foot. He shrugged blandly.

"That's why I'm trying to coax the other five into full sentience as quickly as I can while I'm here." He said tartly. "I know I'm vulnerable when I meditate like that. Hence why I'm not back in Soul Society. I don't want to be assassinated in my…whatever the hell I'm actually doing."

Thor nodded understandingly, somewhat amused by Toushiro's obvious disdain for his newfound powers. Together, the odd pair walked down the hallway, Thor keeping a watchful eye on the white, star/flower-shaped tattoo over the boy's eyebrow, ready to warn him should one of the Stones activate without warning. The demigod remembered the first time that the young shinigami had lost control with a slight shudder – this second tattoo and his left eye had turned blood red. And he'd nearly destroyed an entire room. It had been sheer luck that the teenager had been able to regain his lucidity and rein in the Reality Stone's power in time.

"That was an accident!" Toushiro suddenly snapped, gold creeping across the tattoo over his brow and lightening the emerald of half his stare into golden beryl. Thor raised an eyebrow.

"I said nothing aloud, Toushiro." He reminded calmly, allowing the telepathic invasion of his mind to slide. "Nor do I blame you for that incident. You've come a long way since then."

Winter flashed in Hitsugaya's eyes, a snowstorm of shamed recognition passing across his face. He couldn't always tell when he was using telepathy or telekinesis, especially after he'd been interacting with the other six stones. It took a while for him to readjust to the physical world.

"Well, it's been two months since I started training." He acknowledged, grateful for the Asgardian's understanding. Odin hadn't been happy the first time that Toushiro's telepathic abilities had allowed him to unconsciously access the old king's thoughts. Thor, however, was less judgmental.

They arrived at the soldiers' dining hall silently and stood idly in the wide doorway for several long minutes, observing the myriad members of Odin's elite personal guard eating in small clusters, all grinning and speaking animatedly with their fellows. Then the young shinigami let out an audible sigh and stepped into the throng of gold-armored guards, Thor keeping a pace behind him out of respect. As Toushiro passed by, the Asgardian soldiers all stopped what they were doing, be it eating or talking, and gave the shinigami captain a deep bow.

"Lord Hitsugaya." One of them intoned respectfully, catching Hitsugaya's attention. "Are you well? You have not been seen for some days."

Toushiro shot the man a cool, composed look, a passing flicker of irritation flashing over the shinigami's pale face at the ornery title. Odin had insisted that he and – somewhat begrudgingly – Steve assume noble status while in Asgard. It gave them a measure of immunity against the typical laws of the alien realm, and alerted most of the citizens to their importance. Of course, Hitsugaya had been bestowed with a higher title than Steve had, given that Odin valued the alliance with the shinigami more than the alliance with SHIELD and the Avengers, but it was a magnanimous gesture nonetheless.

"Aside from the fact that I still can't quite tell if I'm losing my mind or not, then yes, I'm well." He replied dryly. "I have been training."

The Asgardian nodded then, fully aware of what 'training' meant for the young man. He gestured to the table, smiling again.

"If you're looking for something light to start you off, I'd recommend heading away from any stew or casserole you see today, Your Grace." He advised seriously, though humor twitched at his lips. "Most are rather thick."

Hitsugaya took the information in stride, a perfunctory nod of thanks his only response, and set about making himself a plate of food. The atmosphere of the room, once light and rather jovial, had tightened into a quiet sort of politeness. The frozen wisps of Toushiro's personality seemed to instantly silence any thought of mischief. Even when the young shinigami wasn't paying any heed to what was going on around him, something about his demeanor made the soldiers straighten up and act properly. Thor had noticed it only gradually.

Settling into a ledge by the window, Hitsugaya proceeded to devour his meal with all the speed of a starving wolf, his focus entirely on regaining energy. Thor sat down across from him, wondering still about how quick the (pre)teenager's metabolism was. This wouldn't be the first time that the young man had to go back for thirds…correction, fourths. The duo spent an amicable hour in silence, the Asgardian prince's casual supervision drifting somewhat during the time in which Hitsugaya ate. All around him, the guards wandered in slow circles, giving their prince and his young duke friend a wide berth. They were also watching the shinigami captain, wary of his newfound power.

After eating Toushiro stood and closed his eyes. Thor shot to his feet, waiting on tenterhooks for any possible mishap – he knew what the boy was doing.

Electric blue stained the tattoo on the young captain's forehead, and without warning bionic-looking blue lines began to spiderweb over his skin. His breathing slowed and deepened, and slowly his arms went up and out, the Space Stone's blue energies seeping from his skin.

"Where are you going, Toushiro?" Thor asked, calmer now that he realized the Space Stone's power was well controlled. The shinigami shrugged.

"Might as well head to the practice arena." He said carelessly, his attention somewhat fractured by the sheer amount of concentration he was giving to the Tesseract's power. "See you there."

Hitsugaya pivoted sharply on his heel, trailing ribbons of blue power from his fingertips, and spun once before the room warped around him, stained blue by the twisting bands of light as it spiraled in on his features. Then, with a sound resembling the crack of a whip, the warping snapped back into place, and the dining hall once again looked normal. Save one difference.

Toushiro had vanished.

* * *

Remember, questions, submissions, and reviews are always welcome!

~avtorSola


	3. The Toaster Incident

"How does this thing work?"

Steve glanced up at the pair standing before him, hiding a smile behind his book. For the past few weeks, the Avengers had been in charge of teaching the shinigami how the myriad modern conveniences actually worked. Matsumoto and some of the lower ranking shinigami seemed to understand everything with the utmost ease, thank god, but Toushiro…

The utter confusion on the young captain's face was priceless. Every single time he tried to figure something out, he only succeeded in making himself more confused. He could use a flip phone well enough, which had Natasha sighing in relief (she'd been put in charge of making sure he could pass as a normal human being), but the concept of a touch-screen still eluded him. Even Thor understood human technology better than he did.

"That's a toaster, Toushiro-kun." The redheaded spy sighed, smiling fondly at the pre-teenager prodding curiously at the machine before him. "You know, you put bread in it, it cooks the bread, and you get toast?"

Hitsugaya's brow furrowed and he chewed on his lower lip for a few seconds, trying to process the information.

"I don't understand." He said shortly, and Steve and Natasha shared a look of disbelief. Every single time, he said the same thing, and never elaborated on _what_ exactly was the part he couldn't grasp. Sighing, Steve put his book down on the break-room coffee table and stood up, crossing to the counter where the toaster sat.

"Toushiro, I think you're overthinking this." He said, rolling his eyes a little. "Here, I'll show you how it works."

At that, Toushiro looked interested, though he was still frowning a little.

"That's not what I'm confused about." He said sourly, turning to face the break-room's glass door, watching as a few of the SRD's agents scrambled around moving the reiatsu-based technology into some of the computer labs. The two Avengers present exchanged yet another look.

"Then what _are_ you confused about?" Steve asked patiently, slipping a slice of bread into the toaster and pushing down on the lever. Hitsugaya shot him a puzzled expression, then prodded at the toaster again. Suddenly, the smooth patch of skin above his eyebrow glowed fluorescent purple and with lightning-fast pace his tattoo formed, the Power Stone's energy staining his left iris bright violet. A purple spark jumped from his fingertip to the wire plugging the silver contraption into the wall socket.

For a few brief seconds everything was perfectly still, and Steve came over, practically yanking the young captain away from the toaster with a sort of panic in his gaze.

"What are you thinking?!" he yelled. "Are you trying to blow us up?"

Hitsugaya frowned and the Power Stone's purple energy disappeared from his face and eye. His expression then was so innocent-looking that Steve felt some of his anger drain away, and the supersoldier leaned heavily against the counter, sighing and tapping his elbows against the shield on his back. Natasha also had an uncharacteristically anxious expression on her face, and Toushiro looked between them bewildered.

"What?" he asked, his tone a smidgen testy. "I was trying to figure out what makes that thing work! It's not reishi-based – none of your gadgets are, so…"

Natasha suddenly burst into laughter, understanding exactly what had been confusing the shinigami captain the whole time.

"Oh!" she laughed. "Toushiro-kun, it runs on electricity. Almost everything we use runs on electricity, not just computers!"

Toushiro went a bit pink in the face and muttered something like _unimaginative humans_ , but then, without warning, the toaster exploded. A muffled roar of surprise came from all three of the break-room's occupants, and they threw themselves to the floor as shrapnel and molten toaster-bits flew through the air accompanied by a cloud of smoke. Overhead, the fire alarm went off and suddenly water was raining down from the sprinklers installed in the ceiling.

When the worst had passed, Steve uncurled himself from where he'd thrown himself about Toushiro and Natasha, his shield ringing dully with the force of the explosion. Slowly, he sat up, cautiously approaching the toaster's smoldering remains. Without a single spoke word, he unplugged the still-flaming device and watched in a sort of stupor as purple energy sparked in the toaster's broken shell.

Natasha came over and picked up a charred crust of bread. She turned back to the white-haired captain, who was steadfastly avoiding looking at anywhere but the now-sizzling remnants of what had worst been a working toaster. Steve also turned to look at the small shinigami, his soaked hair streaming water. Toushiro flushed a deeper shade of scarlet. All three of them were dripping wet.

"I blame Steve." Toushiro said without preamble, and several concerned – and equally soaked – members of the SRD came rushing in to help them. The three Avengers just stood looking at each other, ignoring the worried questions from their subordinates.

Finally, Natasha spoke up.

"Only you could weaponize a toaster in one poke, Toushiro." She said flatly. "You and maybe Tony."

Just then, Matsumoto walked through the door, her blonde hair sopping and stuck to her face. She blinked.

"What's this about a toaster?" she asked curiously. Hitsugaya's blush deepened.

"Nothing." He choked out. "Natasha, Steve, we will never speak of this again. Agreed?"

Quickly, the two nodded. Then Natasha seemed to reconsider, a wicked grin crossing her face.

"Oh, I don't know…" she said. "I think Tony would really enjoy hearing this story, don't you, Steve? Maybe I can tell him about it while I'm slaving away over that massive pile of paperwork…"

The supersoldier grinned at the way Toushiro's cheeks were paling rapidly, then pretended to think for a moment.

"Well, if Toushiro would consent to do our work for us we wouldn't have time to talk to Tony…" he let the sentence trail off. The white-haired boy stared at them openmouthed for several seconds – as did Matsumoto, who was well aware that the two Avengers were blatantly blackmailing her captain. Then Hitsugaya swallowed hard, his glare growing sullen.

"I hate you both."


	4. Desert Disaster

**A/N:** Thanks to geekgirl4ever for the idea!

* * *

Hitsugaya was perched quite comfortably on the rafters above the wide white training room, casually kicking his feet back and forth with all the general innocence of a three-year-old. Below him, Matsumoto and Hirako were busy teaching Steve and Bruce – respectively – to control their reiatsu. Bruce was doing quite well, as had become customary for him throughout the training, and Hirako had practically said as much to his face. It had given the scientist a much-needed boost in self-esteem. He was now able to call upon the Hulk's massive strength and tough Hierro at will, though, like the Hollow masks, he had a time limit. Currently that limit was at four minutes – fairly short, but improving by seconds each day.

Steve, on the other hand…

"Focus it, Rogers-san." Matsumoto chided, examining the bright silver light radiating off the edges of his shield. "It's still a rather dull blade now."

Steve groaned and with that lapse in concentration the silvery-blue corona hazing over the edges of his vibranium shield cracked and shattered apart in a puff of mist. The supersoldier swore violently under his breath, and Toushiro had to try very hard to suppress the chuckles bubbling at the back of his throat. Tessa, however, had no such qualms.

" _Ahahaha! That was pathetic!"_ she cackled in his head, the whiplash of her blue power spiraling around his mind. He smirked inwardly.

" _Reiatsu is always hard to manipulate at first, Tessa-chan."_ He reminded the Tesseract's persona tiredly, his tone bored. " _Took me a hell of a long time to quit emitting the stuff in my sleep."_

Tessa seemed to think this over for a moment, then a spark of her curiosity ignited the blue flickering everywhere in his mind's eye.

" _Hey, that's the spy_ _human-dude-man-guy-person-male…"_

" _Synonyms, Tessa. Those are synonyms. You only need one."_ Toushiro groaned quietly. That had become a bad habit of hers, and it irritated him to absolutely no end. He sighed, tuning out the voices of the six, then settled down to watch Fury approach the panting captain.

"Captain Rogers, I have a mission for the Avengers. Commander Hitsugaya may accompany you if he wishes to do so." Fury said without preamble, and Steve sighed.

"A mission? To do what?"

Fury raised an eyebrow.

"SHIELD received word of a minor Hydra base which might have Loki's scepter." He replied. "They recently received a shipment of very odd technology of the same caliber that we previously used to contain the Tesseract. We need you to storm the base."

Steve nodded, glancing at Matsumoto apologetically as he strapped his shield to his back.

"Sorry, Miss Rangiku." he said. "I'll practice as soon as I get back."

Toushiro rolled his eyes and with a swift, effortless flip, leapt down from his perch high above the training Avengers below.

"Damn right you will." he sniped, digging an elbow into Steve's side, a grin curling over his young face. "That was awful."

Steve laughed a bit, quickly throwing an arm over the short commander's shoulders.

"Don't start with me, kiddo. At least I was better than you were when you began trying to pull out your Spiritual Powers, or so Miss Rangiku tells me." the American soldier jibed back slyly, grinning at the rising pink flush on Toushiro's face. "Apparently _you_ almost brought down a roof on your head."

Hitsugaya huffed irritably and glared at his lieutenant, though he did not make a move to loosen Steve's hold on him - a fact that was not lost on anyone.

"Matsumoto, I told you to stop telling embarrassing stories about me." he complained grouchily. Hirako grinned his special toothy leer, his blond bob obscuring one of his eyes for the briefest of seconds.

"Eh, you worry too much, Hitsu-kun." he simpered. "Every one of the captains has nearly blown up a building before during training mishaps. I think you've actually got the cleanest record on that account."

"It's Hitsugaya-taicho to you!" Toushiro snapped reflexively, drawing raised eyebrows from nearly everyone in the room, Hirako especially. The Vizard scowled.

"The hell? You just let Rogers-san call you _kiddo_ , for god's sake. Preferential treatment, much?" Hirako grumbled. Toushiro went a few shades pinker in the cheeks.

"...shut up." he retorted, the blush painting his face the same shade as Matsumoto's scarf. "I heard mission, and I heard that I could come. So let's go."

Fury's expression didn't change much, but the quirk of his eyebrows gave away his amusement. He handed Steve a thick manila folder.

"In there is all the information you need to know, Captain Rogers." he said. Then he turned to the white-haired preteen. "And remember, Commander, please fight conservatively. We can't afford for you to be knocked out of commission."

Hitsugaya scoffed a bit at the warning, but nodded his acquiescence anyhow and followed Steve from the room.

* * *

A few hours later found the Avengers in uniform - Hitsugaya out of his gigai - all loaded onto a plane which Clint was casually piloting across the Atlantic Ocean. Toushiro was sitting curled up on the floor of the plane, leaning back against the metal wall with a sort of casual, calm grace. The other Avengers were scattered around similarly to he, all save Natasha and Steve who were sprawled out next to each other, laughing at something that Tony had done. Finally, Toushiro rolled his eyes. He'd had enough.

"Alright, you two." he said mischievously. "Knock it off with the cutesy-couple thing you've got going on. I want to know the details of the mission."

The fierce blush that spread across the pair's face was hilarious, and they shot apart, stuttering and making stammered death threats. Hitsugaya just smirked, a devilish gleam in his green eyes, perfectly well aware of the snickers coming from Tony, Bruce, and Clint. Thor was the only one who seemed somewhat oblivious - and that's because he was reading.

"Come on, Steve. What's the mission?" the young SRD commander asked again, relishing that the blush wasn't adorning his face for once. The American captain buried his face in the manila folder, grateful that it could hide his flush (though Natasha wasn't so lucky).

"Uh...okay." Steve stammered out, the plane's droning hum a quiet murmur in the background. "So...looks like this is your standard breaking-and-entering sort of operation. There are two entrances in the fort's walls - South and East sides. Natasha, you and I will take East. Clint, you and Bruce take South. Tony, Thor, Toushiro, you three attack from above. Our aim is to capture the base. SHIELD will be bringing in a team of specialists to look for clues after the base is secure. Are we clear?"

Everyone nodded, and for a moment, everything was quiet. Then Clint's triumphant crow came from the pilot's seat.

"Steve, I swear to God, be a little more subtle next time." the archer said, his tone dripping with glee. Steve blinked, the pinkness coming back to his cheeks. Natasha shot him a suspicious glance.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Clint." the supersoldier replied, his tone utterly unconvincing. The assassin snorted, and suddenly the others in the plane began to laugh.

"For crying out loud, Captain Obvious, your team assignments? Really?"

Steve went scarlet, as did Natasha. Both of them refused to speak for the rest of the trip.

* * *

Toushiro surfaced from his meditations a few hours later to find Tony clad in his armor in front of him, his face serious. Thor stood right behind him, hammer in hand. Both of them were ready to go. The plane was gliding on JARVIS's instructions - it seemed that Steve and Clint's teams had already jumped out.

"You ready, kid?" Tony asked. Hitsugaya's lips pursed in distaste at the nickname, but he said nothing and merely nodded. As soon as they jumped - on Steve's signal - the plane would coast to a safe distance away and land. So the trio went and opened the hatch, standing casually on the slab of metal and wire as hydraulic pumps lowered it into the desert sky.

 _~"Now!"~_

Toushiro barely had time to realize that _shit-it-was-hot_ before he pitched himself forward into the sky, body moving on autopilot. His haori swirled around his waist and then his head and shoulders as he plunged towards the sandy earth below, the dragging, sucking heat pulling him down. Dear lord, he was wearing a _black, bulletproof_ bodysuit. In a desert. Heatstroke risk, much?

With a roar worthy of Hyourinmaru's lips, he called for his Bankai.

"Bankai! Daiguren Hyourinmaru!"

The wings of ice unfolded around him, rivulets on water immediately dripping from the carved ice feathers. But he immediately felt better, the coolness of the ice wreathing his slender frame alleviating the devastating heat somewhat.

He dipped one wing into the swift currents of hot air and took off like a rocket, streaking through the sky. Below, he could hear the startled shouts of Hydra members, and suddenly the clatter of gunfire broke out. A bullet nicked one of his wings of ice, causing a spiderweb of cracks to spread briefly through the silvered rime before his overwhelming reiatsu repaired the damage, superficial as it was. Above him, his ice flowers wilted in the dry heat.

Tony's voice crackled in his earpiece.

 _~"I'm going in! Thor, Toush, you two follow me down!"~_

Toushiro snarled, instantly recoiling against the nickname.

"My name is not 'Toush,' idiot!" he snapped, but Tony was already plummeting towards the fort, Thor on his tail with lightning snapping around his hammer. So, reluctantly, sweat already dripping down his pale cheeks, Toushiro followed. He folded his icy wings around him, curling them close to his spine, and dove towards the fort below.

The trio landed just as the Hulk's vigorous roar sounded from the south entrance, drawing attention away from them for the split second they needed to attack. Toushiro Shunpoed wildly through the groups, his Zanpakutou flashing scarlet with blood, heading away from the Tony and Thor's less precise attacks. He didn't want to be caught up in Thor's lightning or Tony's showers of heat-seeking missiles.

A bullet grazed Hitsugaya's sweaty brow, opening a thin line of red on his forehead, and he felt the six Stones surge forward in his mind, worried. He calmed them with a hurried thought, then quickly ducked under the hail of metal coming towards him and cut down the man attacking him. With a curse, he realized that the nearest doorway into the sandstone fortress was too small for his wings to fit through.

He disengaged his Bankai, and darted through the open door, running at full speed. Almost instantly he could feel the heat assailing him again, almost a physical blow to his wintry constitution, but he did all he could to ignore the aridity for now. Continuing down the narrow passage, he ran into three surprised Hydra gunmen, one of whom was felled by Toushiro's thrown dagger. The other two were quickly dispatched with a neat, low-powered Byakurai, and Toushiro flitted forward and jerked his bloodstained dagger from where it was buried in the dead man's eye socket, ignoring the growing pounding in the back of his skull.

Several minutes and thirty men later, the ice-captain's face was flushed and he was breathing heavily,, his limbs trembling slightly. He closed his eyes, standing perfectly still in the center of what had once been the headquarters of this Hydra outpost. A ring of wounded and dying men surrounded him. He gasped uneven, shallow breaths, his fingers feeling abnormally like clamflesh, and pressed two fingers to his headset.

"The control room is secure." he said, his voice a little dry. "Steve?"

 _~"We're in control of the base, son. Do you have any survivors?"~_

"A few." Toushiro said. He was feeling dizzy, and too late he realized that he wasn't sweating anymore. For some reason he felt vaguely baffled, but by what he couldn't tell. "My blade bites deep...there's a lot of blood."

For a moment there was silence, and then Bruce spoke, his voice tired but concerned.

 _~"Are you okay, Toushiro?"~_ he asked tentatively. Hitsugaya thought for a moment, then grudgingly admitted it.

"...I'm extremely prone to heatstroke." he said without preamble, feeling rather than seeing the world spinning violently about him. His muscles suddenly went slack, and he sank weakly onto the steaming sandstone floor, the sun shining cruelly on his pale little face. "...Ice, you know...i'melts...inthadeserr..."

His voice slurred suddenly, words losing focus, and he blinked in confusion. Why was the ground so close...?

 _~"Goddamnit! Tony, the monitoring tech in his suit! What's his temperature?!"~_

* * *

 _~"...Ice, you know...i'melts...inthadeserr..."~_

Steve heard the boy's voice drop into a low slur with astonishing clarity, the dazed quality of his words quickly becoming apparent. _Heatstroke._ Of course the kid would get it, being an ice-wielder.

 _~"Goddamnit! Tony, the monitoring tech in his suit! What's his temperature?!"~_ Bruce yelled into the headset. For a moment there was silence, and then Tony swore colorfully, his tone low.

 _~"Shit. Shit shit shitty shit. He's just upwards of 41 degrees Celsius. Where was he?"~_ Tony cursed. Steve's upper lip curled in a grimace, and he closed his eyes, trying to pick out the familiar, crisp, brilliant-white-ice-pine glow of Toushiro's reiatsu. After a few moments, he found it.

"I've got him." he announced, glancing at Natasha, who stood by his side. "Tony, tell JARVIS to bring the jet around. Bruce, when it lands, grab whatever you'll need to tide the kid over until we can get him back to the SRD's treatment rooms. Clint, you inform Fury of our situation."

 _~"Roger that, Rogers."~_ Tony said, though his heart didn't seem to be in the sarcasm. Steve ignored it and took off running for the nearest opening in the fortress's sandstone walls. He ended up leaping through a window shattered by bullets, his vibranium shield protecting him from the shards of glass. Natasha followed close behind him, her sleekly beautiful face as grave as the steel of her guns.

The pair - couple, though they wouldn't admit it even to themselves - dashed through the halls, Steve following that icy-cold trail of spiritual presence until he came across room in which Toushiro lay shivering on the floor, his face scarlet with sun-fever. With a low curse, Steve walked over the the dazed preteen and picked the boy up. The young shinigami flopped like a ragdoll in Steve's secure grasp. He struggled to focus on Steve's blue eyes.

"...Seeve..." he mumbled, incoherently, trying to pronounce the American captain's name. Steve smiled reassuringly, something like fond exasperation in his face.

"Easy, son." he said kindly, cradling the boy to his chest and starting back for the courtyard where the plane would inevitably land - it was the only one big enough. Natasha ran alongside him, her palm on the boy's flushed brow at one point, testing his temperature. The couple exchanged glances, but kept going, and once they arrived in the courtyard, Bruce took over.

"Steve, get him in the plane. Hurry." the biologist ordered worriedly. "We need to get his temperature under control ASAP."

The supersoldier complied, and with barely a thought the entire team followed, watching like anxious mother hens as Bruce pulled the preteen's haori and bodysuit off, wrapping the boy in sheets dampened with cool water. Bags of ice - unmelted, thankfully - were nestled around the stricken shinigami's neck and armpits, and a frozen towelette was laid across his forehead. Only then did Bruce relax somewhat, working a thermometer under Toushiro's tongue and watching with some sense of satisfaction as the red line started to drop, slowly and surely.

"Good grief." Bruce said finally, looking up from his patient, a scowl on his face. "Heatstroke-prone, my foot. More like allergic to the sun!"

The Avengers relaxed considerably at the pronouncement, thankful that their young friend was out of immediate danger. Thor spoke up then, his tone petulant.

"Are we going to transport young Toushiro to one of your medical facilities?" the Asgardian asked. "Friend Barton claimed that your leader allowed for such an operation."

"M'fine." Toushiro slurred suddenly, his voice aggressive. He tried to sit up but fell back onto the floor of the plane helplessly, his muscles still uncooperative. Steve folded his arms across his chest.

"You are not fine." he said sharply. "You have heatstroke. You need to get to a hospital."

The SRD Commander glared, his gaze still hazy with confusion and headache.

"You're..." Toushiro's nose wrinkled up - he couldn't think of any decent insults. "You're wrong an' dumb."

The Avengers all blinked at the uncharacteristically childish response. Natasha knelt down by the boy's side, sighing, a wicked grin crossing her face.

"Anyone have a video camera?" she asked suddenly. "I think our little ice-prince here is delirious."

She turned her attention to the plane itself and called out.

"JARVIS, take an audio recording if all else fails." she ordered. "And head towards the SRD as fast as you can."

 _~"Of course, Miss Romanoff."~_

Tony whistled, recognizing the Russian spy's plan.

"Damn, you're cruel."

* * *

The next morning, Toushiro woke in one of the SRD's two infirmary wards with a sour taste in his mouth and a pounding headache. Reluctantly, he sat up, only to find that an IV needle had been taped into his wrist and that several cool cloths had been wrapped around him. He groaned, rubbing at one eye tiredly.

"Oh, I see that you have awakened, my young friend."

Thor's bass rumble filled the air, and weakly Toushiro turned his head to look at the approaching Asgardian. Thor was smiling cheerfully, but there was something ominous about his demeanor that put the young captain on edge.

"Thor...what happened, exactly?" Toushiro's words felt blunt in his mouth, but thankfully they weren't slurred anymore. That much he remembered before everything went blurry and unclear.

"You suffered a nasty heat-stroke while in Egypt, or so Friend Banner tells me." the Asgardian said delicately, sitting down in a chair by Toushiro's bed. "You were delirious for three hours, and required intravenous rehydration as well as an ice bath."

Hitsugaya winced. Even for him, that was bad. Then something registered.

"...I was delirious." he said in disbelief, the foreboding feeling that he'd had earlier making sense now. "...you put me on video, didn't you?"

Without saying another word, Thor held out one of Tony's smartphones and pressed the play button.

 _~"I don' like Masmoto."~_ the onscreen Toushiro slurred, unaware of the Avengers' stifled laughter. ~" _She drowns...druwns me in'er chest-parts..."~_

Jade eyes blinked in stupefaction for a brief second before realization sank in. The sound wasn't coming from the phone.

It was playing over the intercom.

Seconds later, Natasha's laughter could be heard in the background, and Toushiro's eyebrows twitched.

"ROMANOFF!"

* * *

Review! Please...


	5. Parental Concern

**A/N:** So, this is a pacifier while I'm struggling to finish the latest chapters of _The Power of Seven_. I'm hitting some severe roadblocks... :(

Anyhow, enjoy! This is equal parts fluffy and sad.

* * *

 ** _"Foreign Language."_**

So far the mission had gone well. The target was a Hyrda holdout somewhere deep in the frozen Siberian tundra, probably used for human experimentation, if the laboratory Steve and Natasha had found meant anything all. Natasha was still a little repulsed by it, and though she wasn't saying anything, Steve knew she was thinking of her experiences in the Red Room.

Walking side-by-side, the pair came upon a long stone passageway spattered with fresh scarlet blood. Several corpses lay collapsed on the floor, varying expressions of incredulity and fear on their stone-cold faces. Natasha peered over the tall soldier's shoulder, her gaze calculating.

"Looks like the kid's handiwork." she said, her tone appreciative. "He's a still a little messy."

Steve groaned upon seeing the hapless Hydra soldiers' slashed throats and spines, the gory holes through their heads narrow and slanted - blade wounds. All who had the misfortune of standing in Toushiro's path met bloody deaths, that much he knew from past experience working with the boy. However, as Natasha had assured him time and time again, each deathblow that the young man dealt was one which effected instantaneous death. Even though his methods exercised brutality worthy of a serial killer, the end result was akin to a mercy killing.

"I still wish he wouldn't kill." Steve said ruefully, stepping over the corpses and taking off towards the cold burn of his little brother's reiatsu. Natasha shrugged casually, following effortlessly.

"Steve." she warned gently. "He's as merciful as a warrior could be, and you know he won't ever stop wanting to fight. It's as much a part of him as it is a part of you and me."

Steve reached out for the Russian woman's hand, brushing his thumb wordlessly over her gloved knuckles, looking downcast. She softened a bit, squeezing his fingers gently. She knew what was bothering the warm-hearted soldier.

"Hey." she said softly. "You're doing your best. There's only so much you can do for him, and Toushiro knows that there's a limit. But he appreciates that you're trying to give him a parental figure - you _know_ that."

Steve glanced down at the shorter woman, smiling wanly.

"I know...I just wish the poor kid could've had a real childhood, that's all."

Natasha's face closed off a bit, but Steve was quick to catch the negative memories as they whispered in his girlfriend's ears, and he kissed the lithe spy on the cheek, his nose and cheeks a bit pink. She went as red as her hair, her train of thought breaking off instantly. The supersoldier's face was understanding.

"At least he has a badass older sister to help him out, though." he teased, digging an elbow into the woman's ribs, stepping gingerly over another of Toushiro's kills. Natasha rolled her eyes.

"And a clueless pushover of an older brother who's perfectly willing to bend over backwards for his every tiny whim." she said dryly, causing Steve to laugh in protest. Both knew that the statement was true, however. Toushiro - though he wasn't aware of it - had the WWII veteran wrapped around his little finger. The entirety of the Avengers knew about it, even Tony. Though that had been unfortunate. But in return, Steve (and Natasha, to some extent) was the only person that Toushiro dropped his guard around.

As the pair turned a corner, they were greeted with the last of the series of bodies, and Toushiro's cool reiatsu flickered steadily in the room beyond. Suddenly, the Russian woman noticed something and bent down to examine the latest body on the floor, glancing from the wound in his eye socket to the streak of red on the wall. She blinked.

"That blood doesn't belong to this man. The angle of spray is too sharp." she said, gesturing at the streak of crimson, concern on her face. Then she glanced at the wall behind them, where any bullets would have impacted. Carefully, she moved closer, examining the three large bullet marks in the concrete. One of the three holes had flecks of red splattered around it. Natasha noticed with a flicker of apprehension how _large_ the bullets were.

"Toushiro was hit. On the _one_ day that he wasn't wearing his body armor. Of course." she said grimly, her composure breaking slightly, eyes widening. Steve froze, and the pair exchanged a long look, then as one bolted for the solid steel door at the end of the hall.

As they burst into the room, the dim light dulled their vision for a moment, and thus they didn't notice how Toushiro was crouched in front of a large cage in the far corner of the dimly lit room, his haori flared about his small waraji-clad feet. Steve looked around frantically.

"Toushiro?" he called, his voice nervous, blinking as his eyes adjusted. A sudden, terrified cry split the air, and both Natasha and Steve recoiled, spinning to face the far corner of the room where the young shinigami was, his face saddened but still kind. He glanced up at them, then sighed and stood, his hand extended to sit gently on the shoulder of a frightened little girl, no more than four years old. A chain dangled from her white-clad chest, and a small, slumped figure could be seen still in the cage, the dull brown eyes wide in a paroxysm of horror.

"Hello, Steve." he said, his tone unusually gentle, then he returned his attention to the little girl and spoke gently to her in slightly accented Russian. " _ **Olga-chan, this is my big brother, Steve. He's not going to hurt you, okay?"**_

As Natasha translated, the tiny little girl nodded, trying to turn back to look at the cage, but Toushiro caught her head with one hand and prevented her seeing the body by covering her eyes. Slowly, he turned her to face the two in front of him.

" _ **Don't look back, Olga-chan."**_ he said gently. " _ **You're safe now, alright?"**_

Olga looked up at the taller boy, her brown eyes wide, and she nodded. Then she threw her arms around him and squeezed tightly.

"Старый брат..." she whispered, burying her face in Hitsugaya's haori. His jade eyes suddenly filled with tears, startling both Steve and Natasha, but he kept himself together and choked out a smile, patting her gently on the back.

" _ **Olga-chan, I'm going to help you pass over, okay?"**_ he said, drawing Hyourinmaru from the icy sheath with a soft rasp. Olga flinched at the sound, but when she saw that the sharp edge of the sword was pointed away from her, she relaxed.

" _ **Pass over where?"**_ she asked, her Russian garbled by confusion and a tiny, adorable lisp. Toushiro reached out, ruffled her dirty brown hair.

" _ **You're going to a place called Soul Society."**_ he told her gently. " _ **Most people there are very nice, and few people get hungry."**_

Olga blinked, then smiled widely.

" _ **No more grumblies in my tummy?"**_ she asked, bouncing up and down. Toushiro shook his head.

" _ **Not unless you can do magic."**_ he replied, simplifying the Shinigami arts to one word for her sake and smiling at her antics. " _ **Now, hold still for me, okay?"**_

Olga went still obediently, and Toushiro tapped her forehead with the hilt of his Zanpakutou. A glowing seal appeared between her eyes, a pool of white light spreading from the ground underneath her feet, and she fell backwards into it, her face peaceful.

"До свидания, молодая сестра." the shinigami said quietly, watching solemnly as the light faded and a tinkling black Hell Butterfly with a dash of magenta on the delicate wings fluttered from the shrinking spot of white light on the floor. He held out his hand to the butterfly, which oddly enough flittered over to him and landed on his fingertip for a brief moment before flying unsteadily out the window and vanishing into the cold Siberian night. Slowly, Toushiro cupped a palm to his face and breathed deeply, a single teardrop of glimmering crystal trickling down the side of his face, but he was smiling.

It took a moment for him to regain his composure, but when he did he was completely unruffled, his serious expression back on his face. Steve took a step forward, the beauty of the scene he'd just witnessed touching him somehow, despite the fact that he was mystified by it.

"...Where did she go?" Steve asked gently. Toushiro turned to him, eyes now dry, and shrugged.

"Soul Society." he said simply. "I performed Konso - a Soul Burial, you'd probably translate it as."

Natasha came up and wrapped an arm about the young shinigami's waist.

"Why?" she asked. Toushiro sighed and pointed at the large cage, causing both adults to turn and look. The bloody corpse of a little, four-year-old girl lay there, a bullet hole through the center of her forehead. It was Olga's corpse. On the other side of the cage lay the mutilated body of a scientist in a white lab coat with a gun in his hand. His chest had been slashed open, a cruel blow, and it was clear he'd died in agony after killing the tiny girl. Toushiro glanced at the dead man and looked away, hatred flaring in his eyes for a moment. It was obvious he'd purposefully left the scientist to bleed out.

The pair of SHIELD Agents suddenly felt sick.

"I sent her soul on." Toushiro explained quietly, his tone a bit bitter. "She wasn't attached to this place, but there was a lot of fear in her, a lot of sadness. Souls who die so young can rarely move on - they have to much regret to go. I was that way, once, but Matsumoto performed Konso on me and sent me on the same way."

Steve left his brother carefully in Natasha's grasp and went over to the tiny girl's corpse. It was fairly clear that she had been one of the experiments - she had scales climbing up one side of her neck. Suddeny, Toushiro's fit of cruelty towards the dead Hydra scientist seemed less repulsive. Gently, Steve lifted the frail body in his arms, then turned to look at the young shinigami with compassion in his gaze.

"...It's hard for you to do that to such young people, isn't it?" he asked. Toushiro nodded once, then smiled and looked out the window at the cloudless cold sky.

"Always." he replied. "But then I remember how Soul Society is, how it works. A little girl like her will be given a good home. Her spirit will be just fine, until it's time for her to be reborn here."

Steve nodded thoughtfully, a sort of solemn understanding in his bright blue gaze.

"What about the man?" he asked carefully, watching as Toushiro's face darkened.

"I gave him a one way ticket straight to Hell." he growled out, his fingers twitching toward his now-sheathed Zanpakutou. "The second his soul appeared, the Gates of Hell opened for him. He'll suffer for eternity there."

Steve blinked in shock, but Toushiro was already anticipating the question. He knew the older man well enough by this point to realize what the man would ask.

"And before you ask," he sighed, "No, I did not summon the Gates myself. They appear automatically when someone has committed grave crimes in their mortal life and not repented sufficiently - though how that's determined, I do not entirely know."

The supersoldier looked like he wanted to say something, but then he looked down at the tiny body in his arms, and his face tightened. He said nothing. Suddenly Natasha tightened her hold on Toushiro's middle, and the boy groaned in pain, doubling over. She glanced up at Steve, watching as his attention flashed to his younger brother, distracting him from his earlier thoughts, then returned her attention to the young man beside her.

"Where did the bullet hit you, kid?" she asked, her tone stern. Hitsugaya glanced away and gingerly straightened himself back up.

"I'm fine."

"You whimpered , Toushiro-kun."

"Shut up."

"Look, you and I both understand that I will tie you up and examine you myself if you don't tell me what I want."

Toushiro's glare was murderous, a frosted glower curling into a frown, and he just scowled, trying to pull away from the spy. But Natasha quickly swept his legs out from under him and pinned him to the concrete below him, causing him to yelp as she fell on his stomach. Natasha's face went taut with concern, but she made no move to get up.

"Toushiro-kun, can I please take a look?" she asked cautiously, reaching for the collar of Hitsugaya's shihakusho. The black fabric was ripped at one point, a warm, sticky fluid staining the edges of the tear, and Hitsugaya glanced down at it, wincing, then nodded. Natasha took the permission gracefully, sliding her thumbs under the black silk kosode and the white shitagi and gently pulling it from where it was tucked into his hakama to expose the wound. Natasha hissed when she saw the deep gash just beneath the boy's ribcage, and Hitsugaya winced a bit as the fresh air hit the slashed flesh and stung. While not particularly long, it was very clear that the bullet had bit deep.

"That's a nasty graze." Steve observed, a touch of worry in his blue eyes. Toushiro rolled his eyes.

"I've had worse." he defended himself, scowling a bit.

"It's bleeding quite a bit, son."

" _Seriously,_ Onii-san, I'm fine."

"Natasha, would you radio the medical squad and tell them that Toushiro will need some stitches?"

"Of course I can; toss me your radio, would you?"

"Here you go."

"You two _insufferable-_ "

"Oh, hush, Toushiro-kun. Steve and I have every right to be worried about you."

"I've had my entire left side cut off before, and you're worried about a scratch?"

"Toushiro, would you please quit trying to break the radio in Natasha's hand? We need that."

The three were still arguing when the three arrived back in the main room of the Hydra base, where several captured Hydra soldiers were kneeling on the floor, their hands in handcuffs. SHIELD agents watched over them, guns held in nonthreatening, though still ready, positions. A few SHIELD agents who were wounded were being treated in one of the room's corners, and the dead were being laid upon tarps on the other side of the room. Steve left to go put Olga's body down there then returned to help wrangle the belligerent young man over to the doctors, among which Bruce had been stationed.

"Toushiro, for the love of all that is holy, would you _please_ let Bruce take a look at your side?" Steve finally snapped, causing the young shinigami to stop short. "Your pride isn't going to shatter just because you're taking care of yourself!"

Hitsugaya's lips pressed into a thin line, unhappy with the statement, and Natasha stepped in, her voice cool.

"He doesn't like seeing you hurt, Toushiro." she said evenly. "Neither do I. And frankly, you don't really have a choice in the matter. Steve is the Avenger's head-honcho on the field, and your older brother. You can't really disobey him."

Toushiro glowered unhappily, and Steve sighed.

"Come on, son. It would make us feel better."

The green eyes rolled sarcastically in the large eye sockets, but finally the young shinigami conceded defeat and allowed the pair to lead him over to where Bruce was busy wrapping a soldier's bloodied forearm with bandages. He blinked as the three approached, then tied the knot of gauze and sent the man on his way so as to turn his full attention onto his three friends.

"Which of you three is it this time?" he asked dryly. "No, wait. I already know, considering that Toushiro is scowling like a thunderstorm and the two of you look tired."

Hitsugaya's cheeks went a bit pink as Bruce gestured for him to sit on the nearest of the portable examination tables that SHIELD always carted around on their missions. He looked at the table distastefully, but then he felt Steve's hand brush anxiously against his upper back, the gentle, concerned flicker of reiatsu stirring the supersoldier's windy power. A heavy sigh escaped the boy, and so without a word he pulled Hyourinmaru's sheathed length over his head and passed the blade to Steve. Then he shrugged his haori off and untucked his kosode and shitagi from his hakama and pulled those garments from his shoulders as well. Only then did he gingerly move to do as Bruce had bid, hopping up onto the white surface with only a flicker of discomfort.

Bruce examined the bloody furrow thoughtfully, then reached into a nearby bag and pulled out a sealed roll of sterile cloths. He extracted one of the fluffy layers of padding from the roll and passed it to Toushiro with a faint smile.

"Here, press this to that gash to stem the bleeding. It's not life threatening." he said, his attempt at humor causing a rare smirk to flare across Hitsugaya's face. "But I'm going to disinfect, stitch and bandage it, just to be sure. And...it's a bullet wound, yes?"

Toushiro shot a triumphant glance at his older brother, but quickly returned his attention to Bruce's question and nodded.

"Yeah, one of the bastards caught me a bit off guard." he admitted, his tone a bit more cheerful now that Steve - though thoroughly amused by the younger boy's cocky behavior - was muttering sarcastic phrases under his breath. Bruce took the new information in stride.

"I thought so." he said contemplatively. "Tell me; have you ever had a tetanus shot?"

Toushiro blinked in incomprehension, and Bruce sighed, turning to consult his computer and quickly bringing up Toushiro's medical file - which kindly enough was on loan from Unohana. He confirmed what he needed to know with a cursory glance, then swung his hands to his medical kit.

"It doesn't look like your people have tetanus vaccinations, but these Hydra weapons are rusty as hell, so I'm going to go ahead and give you one after I stitch your side up. Is that alright?"

Hitsugaya shrugged, glancing helplessly at Steve. Natasha and Steve smiled at the sudden turnabout - one second, the boy would be pushing them off with all his usual irritability, and the next he'd be begging for some sort of aid or knowledge. It was mildly hilarious, and completely adorable.

"Lockjaw preventative, kiddo." Steve explained casually, smiling. "Most people in affluent enough countries have them these days. I'd go ahead and get one. I doubt your doctor would be angry with you."

Toushiro considered, but after a split second he followed his older brother's advice and gave Bruce his consent. The calm scientist bobbed his head in approval, then set to work cleaning and stitching Toushiro's side back together. The young shinigami gritted his teeth together when the needle pierced his side for the first time, focusing on breathing, and fairly soon Bruce was wrapping medical tape over a layer of sterile padding on top of the boy's stitched wound.

The tetanus shot provoked a flinch of trepidation, but it quickly passed, and without any further comment, Toushiro slid off the examination table, wincing a bit as he put his clothes back on and tied Hyourinmaru to his back again. Bruce had warned him that the tetanus shot would make his shoulder ache, and he wasn't lying. Then Bruce turned to Natasha and Steve, his face expectant.

"Alright, which one of you two was shot this time? You never hover like this unless it's one of you." he asked blandly, causing the pair to exchange long, amused looks.

"Neither of us." they chorused in unison. "Just Toushiro."

Bruce didn't stare, to his credit, but his lips did quirk.

"Ah, I see." he said. "Demonstrating parental concern this time, instead of the usual smitten worry."

Natasha stamped her foot, her red hair bouncing, her eyes steely, and beside her, the American soldier's face had hardened, a faint red blush tingeing his cheeks. The atmosphere suddenly seemed very cold.

"I would suggest you rethink that statement." she said ominously. "Steve and I are not _smitten_."

Bruce laughed her off, well aware he was inviting disaster but the couple's reaction was too perfect to ignore. But then the rasp of a blade being drawn filled the air, and the temperature dropped again. The scientist paled a bit, turning slowly to face an eerily blank-faced Hitsugaya. Hyorinmaru's point lingered at Bruce's throat.

"The last time I checked," Toushiro murmured calmly, "You rather enjoyed having a head, Bruce."

The sometimes-green-rage-monster felt the Hulk's anger quail in the face of that serene threat, and he felt his heart rate speed up.

"Uh...uh..." he flailed for an answer for several moments, but luck was on his side. Toushiro sheathed his sword.

"I am not a child," he said deliberately, "You will remember that."

Bruce just nodded and watched the boy walk away towards the corpses of the dead, searching for aimlessly wandering souls, then turned to Natasha with a wicked grin, winking at Steve.

"Oh, that was you _all over_ , Natasha." he said, watching as the recognition passed across the pair's faces. Steve laughed, glancing at his girlfriend with a knowing look in his too-blue eyes, and the Black Widow rolled her eyes.

"So his badass-ness comes from me, and his clueless, adorable social-ineptitude comes from Steve." she deadpanned. Then she smirked. "That sounds about right."

"Well, _that_ was harsh."

"...Oh, shut up, Bruce."

* * *

 **A/N:** Translations!

Старый брат - Staruiy braht - Big brother

До свидания, молодая сестра - Do svidaniya, maladaya sestra - Goodbye, little sister

Please Review!


	6. Daily Insanity

****A/N: I'm BACK! Well, not yet, but fear not, I'm gearing up to take the "Power of Seven" off hiatus here shortly! In the meantime, enjoy this short snippet from some point in the mysterious future...****

 ** **Also, please check out my poll on my profile page!****

* * *

"I'm booooooored..."

Natasha looked up from the book she was reading and glanced at the billionaire in something like surprise. Tony was hanging upside-down over the back of the couch in his rebuilt Avengers' Tower, the blood rushing to his head. Thankfully, however, Bruce intervened, his expression puzzled.

"How are you already bored, Tony?" the sometimes-Hulk asked incredulously. "We just finished designing the kid's room an hour ago - didn't you make any modifications?"

Tony sulked for a minute.

"Pepper wouldn't let me." he grouched. "I just thought putting the Mark XVII in the corner would be good security...I even painted it blue and silver and green! I was trying to be nice!"

Bruce and Natasha looked at each other and sighed a huge sigh of exasperation. Tony meant well, he really did, but he was honestly inviting disaster. The Avengers' reunion weekend they were planning was supposed to be fun, not freezing.

"Toushiro-kun would have killed you if he'd even thought for a millisecond that you were trying to watch over him, Tony." Natasha interjected, rolling her eyes. She kept her attention focused on the book though, and as such missed Tony's pouting expression - all the better, because Stark's childlike sulking often annoyed her.

"I knoooow..." the billionaire groaned. "Ugh, he's so prickly."

Pepper came walking in with a large bowl of ranch chip dip and a bowl of ruffled potato chips, having caught the entire conversation from the hallway.

"For goodness sake, he's a little boy, you two." the copper-haired woman said firmly, placing the bowl of chips down on the table. "And you talk about him like he's worse than Natasha with a hangover."

Bruce nodded, his expression resigned.

"...that's Toushiro in a nutshell." he said with a sigh. "Luckily for us, Steve, Natasha, and Lieutenant Commander Matsumoto are all going to be here, and they know how to defuse him pretty well."

Pepper threw a pillow at her boyfriend's lab partner and friend, her expression scolding, and leaned casually on the back of the couch.

"Oh, not you too!" she said desperately. "He can't possibly have a temper that terrible."

Thor walked in, dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans, and sat heavily down on the couch.

"Whom are we talking about this day, my friends?" he asked, cautiously nibbling on a chip. Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Thor. If you could avoid only one of two people, who would you chose to avoid? Me with a hangover, or an irate Toushiro Hitsugaya?" she asked bluntly. Thor choked.

"I would rather face a herd of angry bilgesnipe and your hungover self rather than face the wrath of our young shinigami friend, though neither option is very appealing." he said, paling sharply. "Why do you ask?"

Natasha looked pointedly at Pepper, who was gaping openly.

"Pepper didn't believe Tony, Bruce, and I when we tried to warn her not to set Toushiro-kun off." she said, smirking at the stunned woman. Then the assassin's expression turned serious. "Pepper, in all seriousness, there are two things that you should absolutely __never__ do. Okay?"

Pepper nodded faintly, and Natasha held up one finger.

"Number one. Do not make ANY reference to his apparent age, his height or the way he still looks like a twelve-year-old unless his appearance __directly__ relates to a mission in a _ _positive__ manner."

The CEO of Stark Industries nodded again, and Natasha put up her second finger.

"And Number two. Do NOT, for any reason, treat him like a child." Natasha said sternly. "He sees parenting as protecting, and it seriously rubs him the wrong way. It took ages for him to trust Steve and I enough for him to allow us to start parenting him, even just a little bit. Steve is currently the ONLY person on the planet allowed to call him 'kiddo,' 'son' or any other diminutive nickname. Most of the Avengers will get away with calling him Toushiro, but in Japan everyone uses surnames unless they're incredibly close. Since you and Tony are all kissy-face with each other, you could probably get away with calling him Toushiro as well. But if he tells you to use his surname __do it.__ There aren't many people who dare to defy him on that, and of those few, most can match him power-wise. You don't come anywhere close to ranking on that list."

Pepper stared, but nodded, not understanding the Russian woman's solemnity but respecting it nonetheless. Natasha's sardonic nature made her moments of sternness all the more grim, and even Pepper, who was only loosely connected with SHIELD, knew better than to ignore the spy when she was serious. But then Bruce suddenly perked up, a grin on his face.

"Steve, Lieutenant Commander Matsumoto, and Toushiro have arrived." he announced with a fond sense of cheer in his voice, the intense focus of sensing reiatsu plainly evident on his face. "From the feel of things, Toushiro's asleep."

Natasha nodded absently, turning another page of her book.

"Makes sense." she said distractedly, though her alertness did not wane in the face of her concentration on her book. "It's a pretty long car ride to get here from Washington D.C. Can you tell if Clint hitched a ride? He said he might try to mooch off Steve's gas mileage."

Bruce's brows furrowed together, his stress-weathered face wrinkling in an attempt to locate the archer's much-weaker reiatsu. He searched in vain for a few minutes then sighed, giving up.

"Sorry, Natasha. I don't have enough practice with it yet." he apologized. The Russian spy flipped a hand nonchalantly.

"It's fine, Bruce." she said with a rare smile. "We'll just wait until they get up here. Besides, I don't think Toushiro would go to sleep around Clint voluntarily - they're not quite close enough."

Thor looked up from the now half-empty bowl of chips and sighed.

"Knowing young Toushiro, he may not be voluntarily asleep." the Asgardian brought up pointedly. "You know as well as I that he does not value sleep if he has work to do. He may have drifted off by mistake."

Pepper's brows drew together in concern as Natasha conceded the point, blinking in rapid shock.

"What on earth?" she exclaimed. "Is this boy really that overserious? I can't imagine a child giving up sleep to work of their own free will!"

Bruce nodded, casually moving the bowl away from Thor before the broad-shoulder alien ate all of the ruffled chips. He popped a small one into his mouth, savoring the ranch dip.

"Unfortunately." the scientist said, his voice somewhat melancholy. "I won't deny that he's exceptional at his job, but the poor kid doesn't take care of himself nearly well enough. And it doesn't help that Lieutenant Commander Matsumoto is...somewhat flighty when it comes to paperwork."

"Understatement." Natasha muttered under her breath, remembering the last time she'd been over at Steve's house. Steve had been pitching a fit about Toushiro's sleeping and eating patterns when the boy had walked into the kitchen in a very zombie-like manner and collapsed on the tile floor. The pair of pseudo-parents had panicked briefly, then put the boy to bed. He'd woken up a day later with a nasty cold and fever, at which time Natasha had discovered that the young man had gone nearly four full days without sleep. Apparently Matsumoto had given him her stack of backed-up paperwork.

Needless to say, Natasha and Steve had promptly stormed into Soul Society and yelled themselves hoarse at an extremely frightened Matsumoto before returning __all__ of the paperwork to the busty lieutenant and practically terrorizing her into completing it. Her captain's paperwork included. Matsumoto had acquiesced with a meek squeal of terror, and the two Avengers had returned to the Living World to care for the sick shinigami.

Toushiro hadn't particularly enjoyed being stuck in bed, but that was beside the point.

The elevator dinged suddenly, indicating that someone had arrived, and immediately Natasha and Pepper stood up and quickly slipped out of the room. They went down the hallway for a short while, then spilled out into the main room which the elevator connected to. The silver doors were already open, and a tall blonde woman in a fluttery blue sundress had stepped onto the slate floor, followed closely by a familiarly roguish face, both carrying multiple suitcases. Natasha grinned at the sight of her smirking best friend, chuckling wickedly as the archer cracked his knuckles. They'd planned an intense series of pranks on Tony over the course of the weekend, and were planning on blaming every single one on Bruce and Steve.

But then a broad-shouldered man with neat blond hair carefully tiptoed out of the elevator, carrying a small figure gently in his strong arms. Pepper's soft 'aw' echoed the warmth swelling in Natasha's chest.

"Hey Steve." she said softly, glancing at the child sleeping in her boyfriend's secure grasp. "How are you doing?"

The supersoldier's lips quirked into that endearingly amused smile that Natasha knew so well.

"I'm fine, thanks." he said calmly. Then he nodded down at the boy in his grasp, his glance switching from Natasha to Pepper and back again. "Is there somewhere I could put him down? He fell asleep on the way here."

Pepper quickly came forward.

"Oh, yes." she said with a smile. "Tony and Bruce just fixed up a room for him. If you go down the hallway and up the glass stairs, it's at the left end of the catwalk."

Steve smiled gratefully and trotted off, his white-haired cargo shifting slightly in his sleep. Natasha took Toushiro's luggage from Matsumoto and then followed Steve, her footsteps light, and together they wound their way to Toushiro's room. She opened the white door for Steve to step through, then slipped into the room just behind him and looked around.

The spacious room had been painted a light, soothing green, and on one wall an interesting tesselated pattern had been stenciled in white paint. The desk, chair, bedside table, and empty bookcase were all made of glossy black metal, and the bed, made from the same dark steel, was a four-poster with white sheets, white curtains and a light green bedspread. The portable device that Seireitei and Asgard had made to contain the power of the Infinity Stones in case of an emergency stood in the far corner of the room.

Steve gently set his younger brother down on the bed, pulling the boy's black Converse off his feet and tucking the sleeping child up to his chin in blankets. Then, as he was setting the young man's shoes in the closet, Natasha slid the suitcase across the floor to Steve and gently laid a kiss on the sleeping shinigami's pale forehead. Toushiro stirred briefly, his lips parting, then rolled on his side, curling into the fetal position.

"...Mmmf..." the boy groaned lightly, his nose pressed into his pillow, one small hand coming up to curl sweetly on the pillow by his face. Steve sighed from behind Natasha.

"Toushiro was up pretty late last night, and we had to wake up at six this morning to leave on time." the supersoldier whispered, moving towards the door. "Come on, we should let him sleep."

Natasha cast one last look at the slumbering child then followed Steve out, her gaze soft.

" _ _God__ , I wish he was mine." Natasha said somewhat wistfully, watching as her boyfriend shut the door behind them. Steve raised an eyebrow at her, but he knew exactly what she meant. Natasha had started wanting kids after she'd met Toushiro - but since that was impossible, she turned all of her still-developing mothering instinct on the shinigami in question.

"Tasha, he __is__ yours." Steve told her gently. "He lets you dote on him in the way that nobody else does. And you know the affection is returned. I mean, who's the one who can coax him to bed when even watermelon doesn't work? You."

Somewhat appeased, Natasha sighed, smiling faintly.

"I know...It's just hard, having to share him with a fossil like you." she said, her tone light. Steve frowned and bit his lip, trying to determine whether or not to spill. But then, he'd never been good at keeping secrets.

"Tasha...I know I shouldn't have done this without your permission..." he started, watching as the assassin's eyes darkened at the start of his sentence. He winced. "But...I talked to Bruce. I didn't mention your name - Samantha agreed to let me use her as a excuse name should it be needed - but he's agreed to try to look up ways to reverse the sterilization process. I knew you would never ask about it yourself, so..."

For a moment there was silence, and then Natasha slapped Steve across the face hard enough to bruise. But before he could gather himself enough to respond, she leaned in and kissed him hard on the mouth. Steve went scarlet in the face, but made no move to resist. They broke apart gasping.

"I can't even put into words how furious and grateful I am." she breathed. She slapped Steve again. "But I swear to __god__ , if you __ever__ do something like that again without my permission, you will wake up minus a few body parts. Am I clear?"

Steve gulped, clutching his stinging cheek.

"Crystal." he squeaked.

* * *

Natasha, still smoldering, glared at Steve from across the room. Truth be told, she wasn't particularly upset at what he'd done, and she appreciated that Samantha had agreed to be a stand-in at first. But the sheer idea of this being kept a __secret__? That infuriated her. Who did her boyfriend think he was anyway?

"So. Still bitter?"

Natasha looked up to see Bruce standing over her, faint concern in his eyes. Clint was just behind him, the usual smirk replaced with something like compassion. The Black Widow rolled her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice coming out a little more harshly than she intended. Bruce sighed.

"Look, you know Tony's good at hacking SHIELD." the scientist said carefully. "I managed to use his link to sneak into some of the files. I wanted to see if there was any substance that could counter the super-serum in you and Steve...and I saw. Steve didn't realize I knew about it before he asked me to look into reversing __that__ process. With any luck, he's still in the dark."

Natasha glared.

"You looked through my files?" she demanded, eyes narrowing in anger. Bruce nodded calmly.

"Yes." he said placidly. "As the field medic of the Avengers when I'm not fighting, it's my duty to know all of your specific needs. But that's beside the point. He was asking because he knows you'd never ask for it yourself even though it's something you desperately want."

Natasha sighed, her expression suddenly solemn.

"I know..." she groaned. "It's just...I don't know, I just wished he'd asked me about it first, that's all."

"You'd have shot him down, 'Tasha." Clint interjected, plopping down on the couch next to his long-time friend. "Don't try to deny it - you know you would have. Steve might be a little behind the times, but he's not stupid. He protected your privacy as best as he could and tried to solve a problem that's been killing you inside. Sure, you can be pissed at him, but try your best to forgive him, won't you?"

The assassin looked hard at the archer, her blue glare steely, and Clint sighed exasperatedly.

"Come on, 'Tasha." he groaned. "You know I'm right."

"For the first time in your life." Natasha retorted with a sigh. "I guess I just need some time to cool off and plot retribution."

Suddenly Clint's face split in a wicked grin.

"Should we pull out the master plan?" he asked, referring to their pranking plot. Natasha considered, then nodded with a devious grin.

"I think so."

Bruce slowly backed away. The less he knew, the better

* * *

Toushiro woke up to the sight of calming green and warm, fluffy pillows nestled around him like solemn white guardians of the dreamworld he'd just come from. Slowly, sleep heavy on his limbs and eyelids, he sat up and stretched. The five small bead-like protuberances of the Infinity Stones set in his chest flexed with his skin, moving seamlessly with the shifting of his muscles. Tessa, Animen, and Fortens mumbled sleepy greetings in his head, the buzzing hum of their power in his bones comforting. He allowed a gentle wash of greeting to fill his mindspace, not enough to wake Vera and Aevus, both of whom still slept in a passive red and green glow. Then the Purple, Blue, and Yellow Stones went back to sleep, allowing their consciousnesses to withdraw from their host's mind.

With a huff, the boy climbed out of the mess of pillows and threw the blankets back to slide out of bed. He was still wearing the t-shirt and jeans from when he'd gotten in the car with Steve this morning, he noticed absently, though not the sneakers. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Toushiro pushed open the door to the room he'd found himself in and cocked his head to the side as he heard raised voices echoing from somewhere in the large room he found himself hovering in, suspended by an edgy black marble and glass catwalk about ten feet above the floor.

Curious, he peered down, then tried his hardest not to snicker in schadenfreude as he took in the sight below him. A frantic Tony was staring wide-eyed at the frilly undergarments strewn across his living room, as were a stunned Thor and red-faced Steve and Bruce. Matsumoto, however, had advanced on the billionaire, her cheeks scarlet with embarrassment, her blue eyes wild in fury.

"You!" She howled. "You did this!"

Tony held up his hands, obviously distracted by the lacy little things tossed everywhere, and backed away quickly.

"No, I didn't, I swear. Pepper would __murder__ me if I pulled a stunt like this. She's scarier than the Hulk when she's angry!" he tried, placatingly giving his best puppy eyes to the infuriated woman. Matsumoto stopped when her face was an inch from her prey's, reiatsu gleaming off her pores. Tony squeaked like a little girl.

"Then who did?" she hissed.

Toushiro smirked wickedly and used that exact moment to allow his left eye and tattoo to gleam gold, carefully coaxing the nearest pair of Matsumoto's entirely inappropriate underwear to creep unseen into the air. Then with a deft flick of his fingers, he used his telekinetic power to pull the lacy monstrosity over the man's head. Matsumoto instantly lost it and started chasing a blinded, squalling Tony around the room.

Then he stiffened as he felt a hand tap lightly onto his shoulder from behind. Natasha Romanoff hung casually from the opening of a nearby air vent, pure pride in her eyes.

"I saw that, you sneak." she teased, smiling. Toushiro blushed a bit and turned his face away in clear dismissal. But then the spy fully left the vent and wrapped an arm around the white-haired boy's thin shoulders. Her grin was vicious.

"I just want you to know," she informed him slyly, "that your big sister is very, very proud of you."

Toushiro stared at her for a long minute, then started to snicker under his breath, accepting the statement with a sort of childish embarrassment. He leaned into her touch, still looking huffy about the whole thing, and then Natasha felt all of her longing for her own child quelled in one simple moment. Her eyes softened a bit.

"Love you, Snowman." she told him. His emerald stare widened, slid to her face, and stayed locked in an expression of pure shock for the next several he burst into laughter. In an instant, everyone in the room was staring at them instead of the whimpering Tony.

"...that's the best you could come up with? Snowman, __really__? That's so unoriginal! I thought spies were supposed to be creative!" he chortled. Natasha growled, then lunged for the boy as he wriggled from her grip, slippery as a fish.

"When I get my hands on you, you're going to wish you'd never been born, Toushiro Hitsugaya!"

Needless to say, when Pepper Potts returned from her yoga class to an Avengers Tower covered in underwear, a cowering Tony hiding under a table from a bloodthirsty Matsumoto, and an irate Natasha Romanoff fruitlessly chasing after a teenager - who somehow managed to evade her with ease - she just let out a sigh.

How did the Avengers' reunions always manage to end up like this?

* * *

 **Review, please! And remember, for this story - Submissions Welcome!**


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